Pasadena mayor silent on city's appeal of federal ruling

By Kristi Nix, knix@hcnonline.com

Updated
1:36 pm CDT, Monday, August 7, 2017

City Councilman Don Harrison, front, wants the city to reach a settlement on legal expenses ﻿in a lawsuit that led to changes in the council's system of representation. Mayor Jeff Wagner, back, said the issue will be discussed at a council meeting. less

City Councilman Don Harrison, front, wants the city to reach a settlement on legal expenses ﻿in a lawsuit that led to changes in the council's system of representation. Mayor Jeff Wagner, back, said the issue ... more

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City Councilman Don Harrison, front, wants the city to reach a settlement on legal expenses ﻿in a lawsuit that led to changes in the council's system of representation. Mayor Jeff Wagner, back, said the issue will be discussed at a council meeting. less

City Councilman Don Harrison, front, wants the city to reach a settlement on legal expenses ﻿in a lawsuit that led to changes in the council's system of representation. Mayor Jeff Wagner, back, said the issue ... more

Pasadena mayor silent on city's appeal of federal ruling

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Mayor Jeff Wagner is being tight-lipped about whether Pasadena will continue trying to overturn a federal ruling that forced the city to revert to a former system of council representation.

Wagner revealed little at a recent City Council meeting when a council member said that he'd heard that a settlement was being discussed with the organization that represents the five Pasadena residents whose lawsuit led to a voting rights trial and the January ruling.

Because the ruling went against the city, Pasadena is required to pay legal costs to attorneys for that group, the Mexican American Legal Defense Education Fund. In addition, the city's fees to its legal representatives at Bickerstaff, Heath, Delgado and Acosta now total approximately $2.8 million as it pursues the appeal.

U.S. District Judge Lee H. Rosenthal's ruling in the case forced the city to stop electing two of its eight council members as at-large representatives, which the judge saw as diluting Latino voting strength. Rosenthal required the council to revert to a council composed solely of single-member districts.

The council voted 5-3 on Aug. 1 to pay $45,585 to the Bickerstaff firm, bringing the total paid in legal fees over the last six months to the firm to more than $320,000. The city paid more than $2.5 million before the ruling.

"I understand through sources there are negotiations going on with MALDEF, who has requested $1.6 million to settle the lawsuit. We've had an executive session to discuss this, and yet we're still continuing with the appeal," said Harrison, who joined Sammy Casados and Cody Ray Wheeler in voting against approving the latest payment.

"It's time to settle this matter with MALDEF and get this lawsuit over."

"We're working everything we can, and once we get these numbers for sure we will have a council meeting to discuss this," Wagner said.

"I value the task of making sure that the right decision is made where walking away everyone can old up their heads and we can look forward to building a better Pasadena," he said.

During Wagner's campaign, he vowed to bring the matter before the council for a vote.

In 2013, former Mayor Johnny Isbell unveiled a redistricting plan to replace the council's eight positions represented through single-member districts to a system with six single-member districts and two at-large positions, eliminating one predominantly Hispanic district. In her ruling,

Rosenthal wrote that the "dilutive impact on Latino power was evident and clearly understood."

Robert Heath, attorney for Bickerstaff, and Ernest Herrera, attorney for MALDEF, both declined to comment.